Living in the Promised Land

At a time when the global economy is in sharp decline and the world’s financial system is in disarray, Canada is being cited as a paragon of fiscal and regulatory prudence. More than a decade of balanced federal and provincial budgets, plus domestic banks that remain well capitalized and profitable, are winning flattering mention at home and abroad. Canadians are proud of our status as a global poster child for fiscal and financial performance in an era of pervasive gloom.

Overlooked in the frenzy of accolades and self–congratulations is the quiet but steady evolution of the Canada Pension Plan (and its companion, the Quebec Pension Plan) from a potential economic time bomb into an element of future economic stability. In the last decade our national pension system has been transformed from a liability to an asset. How this happened is a story worth telling. That is what Bruce Little does in Fixing the Future: How Canada’s Usually Fractious Governments Worked...